ideaForge, a drone startup on its way to an initial public offering (IPO), has reportedly secured INR 60 crore in a pre-IPO funding round from notable institutional investors, including Tata AIG General Insurance, Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund, Think Investments PCC, and 360 One Asset Management.
Banking sources have revealed that ideaForge completed its pre-IPO placement at a valuation of approximately INR 2,500 crore. The startup has filed its red herring prospectus (RHP) earlier this week and is expected to launch its public issue at the end of June.
However, ideaForge has not responded to queries regarding the funding round.
The company had filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in February of this year. It obtained SEBI approval for the IPO last month.
According to the DRHP, ideaForge’s IPO will consist of a fresh issue of shares worth INR 300 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 4.87 million shares. The estimated size of the issue is around INR 650 crore, with the OFS component amounting to about INR 350 crore.
Promoter Ashish Bhat is expected to sell 180,000 shares under the OFS, as mentioned in the DRHP. Cofounder Ankit Mehta, the largest individual shareholder, is not mentioned in the DRHP as selling his shares in the IPO. However, Nambirajan Seshadri and Amarpreet Singh are set to offload 22,600 and 8,362 shares, respectively, as part of the OFS.
Other investors, including Celesta Capital II Mauritius, Agarwal Trademart, and A&E Investment, will also reduce their stake in the startup through the IPO.
The proceeds from the IPO will be used by ideaForge to repay its INR 50 crore debt.
Founded in 2007 by IIT Bombay graduates, ideaForge is one of the oldest drone players in India and holds over 20 patents. It counts prominent names like Infosys, Florintree Enterprise, and Qualcomm among its backers.
In the first half of FY23, the company reported a profit after tax (PAT) of INR 45.2 crore, compared to a loss of INR 20.73 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal. Its operating revenue stood at INR 139.55 crore in H1, up from INR 9.60 crore in the year-ago period.
It is worth noting that if ideaForge goes public this year, it will be the first new-age tech startup to be listed on the exchanges in 2023. Several Indian startups, including PharmEasy, MobiKwik, OYO, and Navi, have either postponed or suspended their plans for listing due to market conditions.
The most recent startup to go public in the Indian market was drone startup DroneAcharya, whose shares have surged over 44% since their listing on the BSE SME platform in December 2022.
